


The Customer is NOT Always Right

by DeceitfulHonesty



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Department store au, F/F, awkward first meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 17:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6160624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma works in a department store and is trying to close up for the night, when she notices someone keeps messing up her displays. Written for a prompt on tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Customer is NOT Always Right

Jemma made another round of the store. It was almost closing time, so she wanted to make sure everything was tidy so closing would be easier. It had been another exhausting day. She got yelled at by three different soccer moms who tried to use expired coupons or insisted that their items were actually on sale because ‘they were on the sale rack.’ Jemma had nodded politely, feigning a look of sympathy, before explaining that there was nothing she could do. It took all her willpower to not scream ‘I told you so’ after she was forced to call over the manager who explained the same thing. At this point, Jemma just wanted to go home, snuggle into her pjs, order a pizza, and not talk to anyone else for the rest of the night.

  
She paused at the table covered in tank tops that she swore she had reorganized five minutes ago. Yet, somehow, the orderly rows had ended up knocked over and a few of the shirts were pulled out and thrown carelessly on top. Jemma frowned and set to work refolding and stacking the shirts nicely.

  
After that table was immaculate, she continued her survey of her department. She barely made it five feet when she found another display defiled by haphazard shirts tossed on top of it. Jemma glanced around for the perpetrator.

  
There weren’t many people in the store at this hour, so they were easy to pick out. A few aisles away, a brunette in a leather jacket was flipping absently through a rack of shirts. She was cute, but Jemma had a strict policy of never flirting with customers. Too many people took her politeness at work for flirting anyway.

  
Jemma grumbled under her breath and glared pointedly in the woman’s direction. She knew the look of someone who wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. She glanced at her watch (because, ‘no phones on the floor’) and saw that it was only ten minutes until the store closed. Maybe, she could talk the manager into playing the closing announcements early, since this woman was going to rearrange all their displays.

  
Jemma finally finished fixing another display. Then, she saw the woman stroll over to another table and start rooting through it. Today might be the day Jemma would commit a murder.

  
Jemma slapped on her ‘customer service smile’ and marched over to the woman.

  
“Can I help you find anything?” she asked.

  
The woman lurched, knocking over a whole stack of jeans. “Shoot. Uh, no. Just looking, thanks. Sorry about—” She gestured to the overturned pile of pants now on the floor.

  
Jemma really hoped her eye wasn’t twitching right now. “Don’t worry about. It’s fine.” It was not fine. Jemma wondered briefly if she had the strength to use a pair of skinny jeans as a garrote to strangle this woman.

  
The woman briefly tried to help stack up the jeans again, but quickly realized that Jemma was redoing everything she did anyway, so she mumbled another apology and wandered off.

  
The ‘we’ll be closing in five minutes’ announcement echoed over the PA and Jemma breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, any lingering customers would get the hint and leave.

  
No such luck. The walking disaster seemed to not even hear the announcement and continued wandering aimlessly through the racks.   
Jemma was about ready to give up on fixing the displays and hide in the break room, but she wanted to get home before midnight so she trailed after the woman and double-checked every display.

  
Jemma was in the process of making sure the clearance section was still in size order, when she saw the woman pull a T-Shirt out of the bottom of a folded pile, barely look at it, and then toss it back on the pile.

  
That was it.

  
Jemma slammed the hangers in her hand back on the rack and stomped over to the woman, all thoughts of good customer service flying out of her head. She snatched up the discarded shirt and stood on her tiptoes to get into the woman’s face.

  
“I have been awake since six am, it is ten minutes past closing time, and if you take out and unfold another shirt and just leave it, I’m going to shove it down your bloody throat!” Jemma shouted.

  
The woman stood there wide-eyed, awkwardly clutching another shirt. Jemma was a bit startled herself by her outburst. She didn’t really think it through. She hoped the woman wouldn’t report Jemma to her manager, though. If she got fired for this, she really would kill this woman.

  
“I— Oh my god, I’m sorry. I-I’m, uh, I wasn’t going to buy anything. I’ve just been trying to figure out a non-creepy way to ask you out for the past half hour and—” the woman trailed off.

  
Jemma blinked. She hadn’t been expecting that. Now she felt like a jerk.

  
“Oh,” was all she managed to get out.

  
The woman awkwardly attempted to fold the shirt she was holding and place it back on the pile. It was terrible, but at least there was an attempt.

  
“I’ll, uh, get out of your hair now,” the woman muttered, shuffling around Jemma towards the exit.

  
Jemma watched her walk away for a moment, before making a snap decision.

  
“Wait,” she called. The woman stopped and turned around, looking like she was expecting Jemma to yell at her again. “I’m off at six tomorrow night.”

  
The woman’s face lit up. “Great! I’ll come ba—”

  
She wasn’t paying attention to where she was walking and backed into a rack, sending the whole thing toppling to the ground. The slight smile Jemma had had on her face now felt frozen and stiff and her eyebrow was definitely twitching now.

  
The woman glanced between the fallen rack and Jemma with an appalled look on her face as her cheeks turned bright red.

  
“I’ll fix that,” she muttered sheepishly.


End file.
